West Midlands Police have reported that bike crime is down by 50 per cent in Birmingham city centre on last year, due to a revolutionary tactic used by the force.

Birmingham Police have been using a new tracker system from RedWeb Technologies, which catches thieves in the act. The unit is designed to be deployed in high crime-rate areas and can be left unattended until a theft occurs. The tracking panel can be configured to alert numerous police officers as soon as the pushbike moves outside of the area in which it is deployed.

Officers can track the Bike live via a tracking console to the destination point. The Bike also emits a continuous short-range radio frequency that allows the stolen cycle to be located within centimetres as soon as the officer arrives at the destination point.

The bike tracker is part of a 'sting operations kit' supplied by tracking technology specialist, RedWeb Technologies.

A police spokesperson in Birmingham said: "We have suffered from 300 offences of theft of pedal cycles in the last twelve months. We decided to purchase RedWeb's bike seat and have deployed a decoy cycle on four occasions.

"On one occasion, we live-tracked an offender who rode a mile out of the city and loaded it onto a van with two other stolen bikes on board. One of the bikes was worth £1,000 and was returned to the owner. The offender is responsible for 60 offences in the city centre alone and 100 at local universities.

The police spokesperson continued: "The offender is currently in prison on remand. The second theft was allowed to go to the handler. The bike was traced to a lock-up. A warrant was executed and the bike recovered along with hydroponics and suspected stolen motorbikes. One tracker has reduced the crime in the city centre by 50 per cent so far."